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Jeffrey Cooper is missing again

UPDATE: He was found safe, his GPS unit pinging, at the Savin Hill Red Line stop around 1:30 p.m.

The autistic teen from East Boston was last seen yesterday around 8 a.m. He's 19, 6' tall and 150 lbs., has short brown hair and wears glasses. He likes to ride the T, so might be on a train platform somewhere.

He was wearing a GPS device, but it hasn't pinged any police receivers yet.

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I'm curious as to whether they can give this kid a phone now. Just call him up, "Jeffrey, honey, are you okay?" "Yes, mom, I'm just riding the Red Line for the next 36 hours." "Ok, honey, if you get hungry, I can bring a sandwich down to Scollay. Love you, bye."

This young man is AUTISTIC. He doesn't speak. People with autism can often become utterly obsessed with something -- trains are not unusual. If they are autistic and intellectually disabled, they are not able to perceive the risks which can accompany their obsession. Giving him a cell phone and thinking that calling him will get him to come home is about as useful as giving a dog a book on dog training and thinking he'll teach himself to sit on command by reading it. That's why he has a GPS on him. You can bet that this young man's caregivers are past exhausted with constant worry.

I was making light of the situation. Do YOU understand the situation? Do YOU understand that not everyone with autism is incapable of speaking? From the sounds of it, you make it sound like everyone who has autism has it to the same degree, where they're utterly incapable of caring for themselves in any manner -- it is a spectrum disorder.

... is why you would WANT to make light of the situation. Until he can learn to control his wanderings (within limits) -- and keep his parents informed of his whereabouts, this will continue to be a potentially serious problem,

He has never been harmed, and has been capable of surviving nights on his own. He has even apparently been capable of feeding himself. Should it be taken seriously? Yes. Can some guy on a forum make a semi-joke? Yes -- as the two are not mutually exclusive.